For those who don’t know what this refers to, Sega showed off the Saturn at CES (?), announced it was launching that same day, and would cost $399. That’s $800 converted to todays dollars.
Sony had their presentation later that day. The Sony gentleman got on stage, said ‘299’, and walked off. That was it.
Sony got ALL the news. The Saturn immediately seemed overpriced and had to prove it was worth the extra money, which they were unable to do enough to succeed.
Additionally, because Sega bumped their launch up by months WITHOUT telling many partners, they pissed a bunch of them off. Huge important retailers like KB Toys who didn’t get early stock not only refused to carry the console, they pulled all existing Sega stuff off the shelves too. Game developers were caught flat-footed too and didn’t have their games ready.
Sega basically botched the entire launch in the US thing. And it came back to bite them when the Dreamcast came out.
> Additionally, because Sega bumped their launch up by months WITHOUT telling many partners, they pissed a bunch of them off. Huge important retailers like KB Toys who didn’t get early stock not only refused to carry the console, they pulled all existing Sega stuff off the shelves too. Game developers were caught flat-footed too and didn’t have their games ready.
This vaguely reminds me of the Nintendo Switch, which launched without really having any games going for it. Mario Kart 8 and Breath of the Wild were both available on release, ported from the Wii U. You could also get Rayman Legends (ported from the Wii U, four years old) or Disgaea 5 (two years old, but ported from PS4, so new to a Nintendo console). Super Mario Odyssey (original to the Switch!) didn't come out until 8 months after the Switch released. They never have done a Mario Kart for the Switch. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (ported from the Wii U) released for the Switch 15 months after the Switch released.
But everyone loved the Switch anyway; the fact that on release there were zero new games (and maybe up to two old games that were to your taste) available didn't seem to hurt anything.
For those who don’t know what this refers to, Sega showed off the Saturn at CES (?), announced it was launching that same day, and would cost $399. That’s $800 converted to todays dollars.
Sony had their presentation later that day. The Sony gentleman got on stage, said ‘299’, and walked off. That was it.
Sony got ALL the news. The Saturn immediately seemed overpriced and had to prove it was worth the extra money, which they were unable to do enough to succeed.
Additionally, because Sega bumped their launch up by months WITHOUT telling many partners, they pissed a bunch of them off. Huge important retailers like KB Toys who didn’t get early stock not only refused to carry the console, they pulled all existing Sega stuff off the shelves too. Game developers were caught flat-footed too and didn’t have their games ready.
Sega basically botched the entire launch in the US thing. And it came back to bite them when the Dreamcast came out.